An alcohol having 8 or more and 22 or less carbon atoms are suitably used as an intermediate material of chemicals such as surfactants. As a method for producing a higher alcohol from a syngas as a raw material, a method for producing a higher alcohol including synthesizing an olefin by the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (hereinafter referred to also as the FT synthesis), and subsequent hydroformylation and hydrogenation is known. However, the synthesis via olefination has many steps, and the target alcohol having 8 or more and 22 or less carbon atoms cannot be obtained at a high yield.
In Catalysis Today 234 (2014) 278-284 (Non-Patent Literature 1), as a method for producing an alcohol from a syngas, a method for synthesizing an alcohol directly from a syngas with use of a catalyst obtained by supporting Cu and Fe on a bimodal carrier of silicon oxide is disclosed.
In the Royal Society of Chemistry Advances 5 (2015) 65358-65364 (Non-Patent Literature 2), a method for synthesizing a long-chain hydrocarbon by the FT synthesis with use of a catalyst with cobalt supported on a silica carrier having two pore size peaks in a mesopore region is disclosed.
In WO-A 2002/00338 (Patent Literature 1), a method for synthesizing a hydrocarbon with use of a catalyst with cobalt supported on a bimodal carrier of silicon oxide is disclosed.